Soviet Log 41
Free Giacomo! We picked things up in the thick of the action at the Patriarch's Prison. Roq was holding the top of the stairs while Katya, Mei Linn, and Cyta were spread out over the top floor after dodging a volley of AOE projectiles. Lilyana and Brightmeer were 'holding for strategic' in the nearby stolen truck. Eva and Lieselotte were off somewhere having a lover's spat while the rest of us were getting the real work done. Within the prison, we knew we needed to get to the stairs then down to our loot and Giacomo but the dozen or so super-defender-y guards were doing their damndest to stop us. Most of them managed to stand-up before we could take advantage and a withering hail of assault rifle fire soon followed. It was a battle of defend-attrition with both sides unable to reliably hit the other with the exception of mismatched lucky/unlucky rolls and criticals. Outside the prison, Eva finally decided to show up and rapidly moved past the outer sentries. She laid down a brutal bleed-shock AOE burst that hit half a dozen or so guards. Then she did that again. and again. and again. Until most of them were Shock 11 and bleeding profusely. Katya took two critical hits early and was one-hit away from death but was spared thanks to Babba Yagga's special benny (and her ability to re-roll natural 1's). Her focus rapidly shifted to slicing her way down the stairs and away from the firing squad behind her. It was bloody, brutal work with AOE tenderizer damage absolutely destroying the guards trapped between her and Roq with nowhere to run. The walls were thick with blood and guts. Mei Linn combined her Vision Globe and Translocation to zip around the battlefield so she was first to the lower level. There she met more guards and after toying with them briefly, cast Narcolepsy to drop one. Unfortunately, the other guards were not far behind and they awoke the sleeping guard soon after. It was around now that Mei Linn noticed that Cyta was in trouble up on the top floor. She was pushed back against the wall desperately fighting off two guards. Mei Linn again demonstrated her superior battlefield movement, when she opened a Portal right next to Cyta and pulled her through to safety. Based on Cyta's condition this act likely saved her life and earned an Arbiter Benny. Without the ability to phase, portal, or translocate Katya ended up near the top of the stairs with guards in between her and the rest of the party. Thankfully, Roq stuck around long enough heal Katya with her exceptional healing abilities before teleporting down to the next level. Left alone amid calls to 'hold the stairs', Katya invoked Darkness and plunged the stairs into inky blackness. This was the last straw for the guards who begged for mercy and then ran for their little communist lives. The guards up top had already fled under massive sustained area effect bursts from Eva. Unfortunately, the car made a miraculous critical defend and got away, though. The NPCs waiting in the truck chose not to interfere with the fleeing guards either. With the prison cleared of enemies we knew we now had a small window of opportunity to grab our gear and free the prisoners. We split into two groups: Mei LInn and Katya would free the prisoners on the bottom level while Roq and Eva would beam past the anti-magic barrier with their Tech-Based Jump Fields and liberate our chapter 1 equipment. After scanning the bottom level with Mei Linn's vision globe we found that Giacomo was the only prisoner present. Mei Linn used her last 'cast anything because i'm awesome' spell to Inorganically Mold the wall to his cell open. We explained we were friends of the resistance and he quickly agreed to flee with us. Meanwhile up one floor, Roq and Eva had pulled a door off its hinges and discovered a Mystic workshop. Behind the other door they found our equipment! Salvaging and sweeping ensued. Roq found an exceptional medical knife festooned with Snake imagery. The rest of us found some salvage. Once we had everything, we received a radio transmission telling us to hurry. The prison was on fire! Mei Linn confirmed that the entire top floor was engulfed. Then she safely whisked us away with a Portal right into the back of the truck. We then quickly drove away. Just in time since a convoy of ten or so rapid response vehicles passed us shortly after we left. We took a circuitous route with counter-tracking, street-smarts, espial, and stealth guiding the way. Outside, perched behind Eva on the back of a motorbike, Katya made her rolls but not by much. Inside, Roq and Mei Linn explained to Giacomo who we were and that we were here to help. He seemed grateful for the rescue. He also indicated that Raphael Ignanno is just one of his master's 'wizard names'. Roq tapped into the radio communications which were strangely quiet but did manage to pickup a report about the NKVD sending a 'single unit' in to clean up the prison. We wondered who the badass was that could go in alone against us. On the way back to our bolthole we soon entered a large city square with a statue in the middle. It was strangely quiet. We called it a night when Katya's supple body became tight as steel against Eva's statuesque flank. There was something was amiss in the square. Rewards Katya 4 Academic 1 Benny 7 Generic from rescuing Giacomo 7 Combat Category:Soviet